Coco Chanel sipped tea in this cafe across from the Jardin des Tuileries. (Her legendary Rue Cambon apartment and store is around the corner.) The atmosphere could hardly get more French than at Angelina, where a Belle Époque interior swirls around female servers in black skirts and white cotton voile blouses, scalloped collars fastened with teeny bow-tie pins. The all-day-dining offerings are just as delightfully fussy, including the signature Mont Blanc chestnut cream pastry. “It’s the best in the world,” Gaultier says, “and beautifully presented. But I’ve been on a diet for a few months.” Be sure to try another contender for Best in the World: the hot cocoa. Grab a to-go bottle of the chocolat chaud “l’Africain” in the adjacent shop.

Anointed by Vogue as the “Picasso of pastry,” Pierre Hermé has eight places in Paris to grab the city’s most inventive macarons. (The cramped, Technicolor Saint-Germain location was his first.) Gaultier likes the house specialty, the Isaphan — a raspberry, litchi and rose-petal buttercream macaron Hermé created while working at the legendary Ladurée. Hermé sells so many of the Isaphans that the patisserie’s employees call it “the Chanel jacket.” In addition to macarons, the shop offers ice creams, sorbets, pound cakes, waffles, jams and cookies (many available with the peculiarly delicious combination of Isaphan flavors) and sandwich treats so beautiful you hesitate to take a bite.

When Gaultier wants something luxurious and handcrafted, he, like many Parisians (and daily throngs of tourists), heads to the Hermès flagship. Along a shopping-bag-clogged block with such other luxury powerhouses as Prada and Lanvin, the superstore offers everything one would ever want stitched, stamped, engraved or embroidered with the letter H. “It’s all the beautifully crafted accessories you may ever want or need in one amazing store,” Gaultier praises, sounding like an employee. (Well, he was creative director of the brand for seven years.) Upstairs is a private museum, though you might need someone as influential as Gaultier to help you gain access.

Gaultier’s first store, located behind the Palais Royal and up the street from the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, is a subdued, marble-floored two-story boutique — and much different from the Philippe Starck-designed flagship on Avenue George V. But here the same bouncy Kylie Minogue songs echo, the same elegant sales associates coo, the beloved Breton stripes hang, and some exquisite lingerie (not widely available in U.S. stores) awaits a home. Gaultier doesn’t shop here — “I get my clothes directly from my studio” — but stops by often. And true Gaultier fans should, too. “It’s the first store I ever had and there is a lot of Jean Paul Gaultier history in those walls.”

Winding down an eerily quiet neighborhood street lined with traditional Haussmann façades, a thicket of bamboo and the smiling eaves of a Chinese building suddenly rise into sight. Naturally, this is where Jean Paul Gaultier would go to see a movie. Built in 1895 by the owner of department store Le Bon Marché for his wife, La Pagode now has two refurbished theaters showing independent films. “Nowadays, when all the cinemas look the same, it is a pleasure to go to Pagode and watch the movie as if you were still in the 1930s in a sumptuous chinoiserie décor,” says Gaultier. But a screening isn’t the only way to enjoy the surprise of a pagoda in the middle of Paris. You can also follow Gaultier’s lead and drop by for tea in the garden.

One of the few places in Paris attracting French tourists is also your only sure bet for a photo-op with Jean Paul Gaultier. Though the designer insists, “I haven’t chosen it because there is my wax figure in it.” The baroque waxwork museum was founded in 1882, and offers an intensely kitschy tour through a hall of mirrors, light show, panorama of French history from Charlemagne to Napoleon III and, finally, quality time with fashionable figures such as Gaultier, Madonna and Naomi Campbell (not to mention Gandhi and Pope John Paul II). The thundering and trippy Palais des Mirages mirrors-and-light show was created for the 1900 World Expo in Paris and later moved to the over-the-top museum. Akin to walking into a child’s kaleidoscope (kind of like one of the designer’s early ’90s shows), it’s easy to see how Gaultier was “mesmerized as a boy by the play of light and sound.”

There are only about 30 seats in the dining room of this small bistro, one of Gaultier’s favorites. Chef, owner and cookbook author Dominique Versini likes things intime and quaint, but Olympe often is filled with the biggest Parisian personalities including Gaultier and first lady (and former Gaultier model) Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Versini, known as Olympe, offers seasonal Corsican-inspired offerings that have made her one of the most popular chefs in France. But don’t get too attached to the menu, which Versini varies regularly. “I love that it changes,” says Gaultier, remembering his first visit and meal of girolle mushrooms with garlic and eggs. “I went back the next day with friends and asked for the same dish, but Olympe told me she had been to the market in the morning and didn’t like the girolles on display, so they were just not on the menu.”

Sure, among the roughly 3,000 stalls are counterfeit goods and pickpockets. Paris’ most famous flea market still abounds with treasures — exquisitely beat-up steamer trunks and carved wardrobes, vintage Dior suits and caches of costume jewelry, scary vintage photographs, industrial objects and some grade-A people-watching. Clignancourt “has become more expensive in recent years,” Gaultier cautions. He notes that most of his inspiration buying is done while traveling, but he praises the 120-year-old market for being a fun place that offers incredible finds and a chance to grab a memorable souvenir. One additional note of caution: If you plan to haggle, your French had better be grade A, too.